


The Pirates of Arcadia

by Rainboq



Series: An Arcadian Werewolf [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/F, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24757414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainboq/pseuds/Rainboq
Summary: Max and Chloe hanging out during the events of chapter 3 of Chloe and the Beast.A pirate fort is reclaimed, Chloe comes out and Max is very gay.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Series: An Arcadian Werewolf [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790380
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	The Pirates of Arcadia

**Author's Note:**

> Have some gay fluff, as a treat.

“MAX AND CHLOE ARE BACK, BITCHES!”

Max’s heart leapt at Chloe’s exuberance; even if the volume made her ears hurt. She’d been so worried that Chloe was so angry with her for having vanished for five years that they couldn’t be friends anymore. She’d spent months agonizing over how she would reach out to Chloe again when she got back to Arcadia only for her careful, anxiety fueled planning to be wrecked by… whatever had happened, and she’d been reunited with Chloe in perhaps the most embarrassing way possible. The thought made her face burn as Chloe skipped ahead of her through the junkyard. _So not how I wanted Chloe to see me naked._ Her cheeks burned hotter as she re-examined that thought. _WAIT, I_ **want** _Chloe to see me naked?! Fuck I’m 18 and I still don’t have this shit figured out…_

She blinked as Chloe tossed something at her, saving her from her embarrassment. Her arm shot up and plucked the stick from the air like it was nothing, and she stared in shock at her hand. _When did_ I _get coordinated?_ Her eyes adjusted focus to Chloe who was blissfully oblivious as she prowled the junkpile for a stick of her own. Her eyes were mesmerized as Chloe hung her jacket up and stretched, fixating on how the punk’s lean muscles moved, how her hair swished about in the wind. Her hands itched for her camera but it was in the truck. _Wait, how am I noticing this stuff?_ She blinked as she shook her head. Her vision had been so much sharper today she had taken some ibuprofen to fend off headaches. Her hearing was the same, everything was so much louder and crisper. She’d started the day off with vertigo from all the sounds in the dorms. The changes to her sense of smell hadn’t really been noticeable until she’d gone for breakfast, where she had nearly been overwhelmed by the smell of the eggs and bacon.

When she’d met up with Chloe, she’d nearly gagged at the cloying stench of cigarettes, pot and spilled alcohol that clung to her clothes. And weirdest of all, she could actually hear Chloe’s heartbeat pick up whenever she got nearby. _Am I imagining all this or do I have some fucked up super powers?_ Chloe at last found her stick and wheeled on Max, stick held en guarde. “Yarrr! Have at ye scallywag!”

Max couldn’t help but laugh as Chloe came at her, stick swinging high. _It’s good to just be playing again with Chloe._ She deflected Chloe’s swing with ease, letting the bigger girl close the distance with her as she parried the flurry of high and low slashes Chloe followed up with. Chloe laughed along, the delight in her eyes a joy to see given how she’d left Chloe all those years ago. The lonely stare she’d had as Max’s parents drove off was forever etched into her mind. The lapse in concentration nearly cost her as Chloe swept out with her stick again and she was forced to step out of the way. Chloe changed tactics, goading her with words and sticking to her silly character. “Yarrrr! Since when is Long Max Silver such a coward?! Come at me!”

Max shrugged as she changed her footing to stand on the balls of her feet. “Have it yer way Captain Bluebeard!”

She lunged forward, stick swinging high as she went and Chloe scrambled to block, her face twisting in surprise at the speed of Max’s attack. Their sticks hit with a satisfying **thwack** and Chloe’s tumbled from her grip, spinning off into a pile of smashed cars. She quickly held her hands up in surrender. “Shit Max! When did you get so strong?!”

 _Oh, shit._ Max looked at her hands in surprise, she hadn’t been trying to swing hard but one blow had disarmed Chloe. “I, uh… er, I started fencing in Seattle?”

It was a bad lie, but she was kind of on the spot here. One look from Chloe told her that she hadn’t bought it. “Uhuh… Well shit, I guess I’m totally outmatched then, huh? Guess that means you should be captain.”

Max shrugged, trying to be apologetic. “Nah, you make a better captain. Besides, doesn’t the captain need someone keeping her safe?”

Chloe’s pensive frown lit up at the compliment. “Right’o! What say we go to our old hangout and plan our next adventure?”

Max let her stick fall as she walked behind Chloe, her cheeks starting to hurt from how hard she was smiling. “Sounds good captain.”

Chloe dropped back a bit, wrapping her arm around Max’s shoulders. “For real though, it’s so cool to have you back.”

Max cringed inwardly at just how easy this was, to forget that she’d abandoned Chloe for so long. Chloe had made a few barbed comments about it, but she’d definitely earned them, earned a lot more in fact. _She’s probably going easy on me because of what happened… Somehow that just makes me feel even more guilty. I wanted our reunion to be special, not whatever the fuck that was._ She glanced up at Chloe and got a big bright smile in return. _Did her heart start beating faster?_ It was hard to keep all the sounds separate in her head. When people started getting loud, she felt like she wanted to fall to her knees and vomit, but being this close to Chloe; she could just focus on the beating of her heart and she felt peace settling in. “It’s good to be back Chloe, where to next?”

“I figured we need a base of operations that isn’t Blackhell or the Fortress of Douche, so why not go to our old fort!”

Max couldn’t help but laugh. Despite everything, they were still just Max and Chloe, pirates out to conquer the world. “Sounds good Captain Bluebeard.”

The fort was a mess. The rope ladder shredded, graffiti everywhere. “Those fucking _animals_. How fucking _dare_ they!”

Chloe’s fury at the state of their old childhood hangout was endearing, even if her volume had Max wincing. “Those rotten scallywags! They would dare defile the fortress of Captain Bluebeard?!”

Max couldn’t hold in her laughter as Chloe started ranting in character despite her own smile. “We oughta plunder the whole countryside in vengeance! They have spat upon our honour and we must rise to the challenge of those scurvy dogs!”

Chloe spun, big goofy grin on her face. “Whaaaaat, come on Max! These fucking dibshits tagged our fort!”

Max shook her head. “I dunno, makes it feel more you. What about just getting a new rope ladder and chilling?”

Chloe shrugged, deflating a little. “But honour and stuff!”

Max grinned, letting herself get into character a bit. “Yarrr, ye be right Cap’n, but we need us a strong fortification to break the scallywags upon!”

Chloe immediately perked up, waving an imaginary sword around. “Yar! Ye be makin’ an astute observation there Long Max Silver! We best be havin’ a home port ‘for we sail these waters!”

 _God she is such a dope…_ Chloe span about, marching off towards her truck, Max followed along just behind her. _But this is really fun. It’s good to just see her happy again._ She couldn’t help her eyes straying over Chloe they walked. _… And I thought I had a crush on her as a kid. Wowsers, did she ever glow up._

An almost animalistic urge to just jump Chloe’s bones in the woods surged up in her and she had to clench her teeth to fight it down. Her head went light and she was suddenly very happy Chloe couldn’t see her face right now. _What the hell was that?_ She’d felt attraction before, lust even, but this? _Is this just a Chloe thing? I… always was a late bloomer. Maybe this is just…_ Her face collided with Chloe’s chest and she staggered back in shock. “Earth to Max? Hello?”

Her face burned from accidentally finding itself wedged been the punk’s breasts. “Uhhh…”

“You okay there, space cadet? You weren’t responding.”

 _No, I was too busy imagining shredding your clothes off._ “J-just lost in thought…”

“Sure thing… tit seeking missile.”

“H-hey! That was an accident!”

“Suuuuuuuuuure it was.”

Max spluttered as Chloe laughed and got into her truck. _This is so not fucking fair._ She climbed into the passenger side, silently willing her face to stop burning so hot. It didn’t and the racing of Chloe’s heart was _not_ helping.

“Chloe, no. We are not stealing; I’ll just pay for it.”

“Fiiiiiiiiine, be all lame like that.”

“It’s a rope ladder, it’s not expensive.”

“Yeah but like be gay do crimes.”

“That’s… Wait you’re gay?”

Chloe looked at her in utter bewilderment. “Um, dude? Is it not totally fucking obvious? Do I need a fucking neon sign or something?”

Years of idle crushing ignited like a booster rocket. She’d somehow been worried that Chloe was straight or something. Dumbest worry ever. “O-oh…”

Chloe just laughed and slapped Max on the back. “For a photographer, you sure do miss the obvious.”

Max was silently thankful that Chloe hadn’t bothered to ask _her_ sexuality, which had rapidly gone from a non-committal shrug to _gay as hell._

“AW FUCK! FUCKING GROSS!”

Max tore her eyes away from the gently swaying rear of Chloe to her face. “W-what is it?”

“There’s fucking _needles_ up here.”

The idea of someone shooting up in their little childhood sanctuary filed her throat with bile. “W-what should we do?”

Chloe turned around on the rope ladder, looking down at her thoughtfully. “I think I’ve got my shop gloves in the truck; they might be thick enough so that I don’t stab myself…”

“Chloe, that’s a huge risk…”

“Chillax Max, I’ll be careful. Not like there aren’t a shitload of needles in the junkyard anyways.”

“… Not helping your case.”

“Pfft, haven’t been poked yet. Find me a bucket and I’ll go get my gloves, should be something in the little building in the junkyard. I used to hang out there with Rachel all the time.”

The pain in Chloe’s eyes was so plain it made her heart ache. “Alright.”

Max wanted to ask more about Rachel but the look on Chloe’s face told her not to pry, so she wandered off into the junkyard in search of the aforementioned hang out spot. It didn’t take her long to find and she stared for a minute at the remains of their life together. Her heart caught in her throat. Mix tapes, bottles, graffiti. There was a life here, and Chloe’s language had implied them being super close, a new best friend, replacing the void Max had left behind. But with all the stuff laying around and with her being gay… _Were they… girlfriends?_ A stab of irrational jealousy. She fought back with the simple fact that she had left and never bothered to keep in touch. _Her moving on was totally on me…_ It didn’t make it hurt any less.

She found the bin, but not before adding a ‘Max was here’ to the graffiti underneath the ‘Chloe was here’ and ‘Rachel was here’.

“Your bucket my captain.”

“Awesome, hopefully it’s big enough.”

“What… are we going to do with the needles after?”

“Fuck I don’t know, I figured we’d just dump them somewhere in the junkyard.”

Max couldn’t help the eye roll. “Chlooooe, there’s gotta be a needle disposal place somewhere in town.”

“Fine little miss do gooder, we’ll do that.”

Max couldn’t keep her eyes off Chloe as she scaled the rope ladder. _Shit, I am too thirsty for my own damn good._

**Author's Note:**

> I may do side chapters like this from time to time as a way of showing other character's perspectives, I hope everyone enjoys this and as always I welcome your comments.
> 
> Thanks to Olga for betaing and being my long suffering sounding board. Without her I don't think I'd be putting my stuff out there nearly as much.


End file.
